On Mon, 26 May 2008 11:42:02 +1000, dorayme
wrote:
Someone had a Nikon digital at a function I attended yesterday. Very nice and all, I notice it had a "Raw" format as well as "Tiff". What is the advantage of Raw over Tiff? (I know two disadvantages, not all computers can read Raw but most can read Tiff. And Raw is even bigger in file size to Tiff.)
Hey there dorayme! The easy way to explain the difference is that TIFF is one way to process an image. The picture you take with your camera is processed by taking the ISO setting you used, the white balance you used, etc. and processing all of these settings into a TIFF image.
The RAW picture means that all of the information that was processed in the TIFF image is not processed in any way. The "raw" data is stored as data on the memory card and then downloaded to your computer. Having this raw data means that you can change these settings in the computer. If you had the white balance set to tungsten light, you can remove that setting and instead, set it to sunlight, or whatever light you want. With the TIFF image, this setting is locked in and can’t be changed, since the TIFF processing used the tungsten light setting when it processed the image and made it into a TIFF image.
By having the raw data available with no processing done to it, it’s possible to change a number of the settings you used on the camera after you’ve taken the picture. You can manipulate this raw data in a number of different ways, so it’s as if you are taking the picture over, only now you can control the settings from your computer.
It’s kinda like taking the picture, viewing the results in RAW and saying, "Wait, I didn’t want to use this white balance so I’ll take it out and insert this white balance. Okay, now I want to change this setting or that setting, so I’ll take out what I used and insert this other setting."
Talker